A Day in The World’s Shoes

Well as we, the students of Saigon South International School, know that last Thursday(November 6 2008) was a day in the world’s shoes. We started the day dressing comfortably and going to our homerooms to be further instructed. As we made our way towards the auditorium for further briefing, we had participated in both the high school dance team’s performance and listening of a very influential speaker that made us smile and cry by the matters he talked about and how he expressed himself. After we were done listening to the speaker, we split up into groups according to which we were assigned in to participate in some activities that were “fun”. My first activity was a game of survival/race. I had to stand across the field with my team mates and every round there had to be 2 people that ran across the field to take the most important supplies and bring them back to our teams base. We only could take 3~4 items and the items we chose decided our fate. After that we headed up to the gym for another activity. This activity was a “interesting” one as well. We had to jump across a platform with a certain disability assigned to us and pretend it was a bridge and if we were to fall off the platform it would be in water. Some of the disabilities were quite amusing and hard to get used to because we don’t live our everyday life in that position. We then went to listen to another speaker who we could hear very well due to the place it was being held at. After the speaker was done we made our way to the fourth floor to listen to a global issues group do their work. We were force to turn around facing the opposite side of the room while the GIG students placed cards on our backs. The cards labeled out jobs of people and apparently everyone found my one very amusing. I was role playing as a Thai prostitute. The activity was to explain how many people were separated among jobs and only a very small percent of the world had a decent job not to mention the ones who have a really big and important one. We then went for our “grand” lunch. rice,cabbage,a piece of potato and 2 pieces of carrots on a banana leaf. delicious eh? We did not even have silverware available. After lunch we had our final activity at the auditorium as a big high school group. We had to get into a family of both boys and girls and make paper bags and sell them to market owners to get enough money for our house rent, food to the feed family, sanitation and school for the children to attend. We had 3 rounds of 10 minutes each as our deadline to get the money.

To me this was just another day, but it made my day kind of complicated in a way. I did come out thinking differently about the world around us but it wasn’t something i wanted at the moment. Basically i learned that some people survive on under a dollar a day for the family to eat. I also learnt how hard it was to be able to manage myself while thinking about getting money for lunch and how hard it is.

I can try to be more… “open” minded about my surroundings and the poverty going on around me.